Anna Teiche works in a cozy studio in the middle of the woods on a small island off of Seattle, Washington.

About the work

I create gouache and oil paintings that feel inviting and friendly at first glance, but allow for more ambiguous, uncomfortable revelations upon further investigation. Through collaboration with those close to me, I create portraits that explore the concept of the portrait as a representation of identity. I spend hours interviewing each model to better understand their lived experience while photographing them immersed in fabrics and clothing that hold intense personal significance. My work fluctuates between abstraction and figuration, questioning the concept of a holistic personal identity through chaotic compositions of textiles and fragmented limbs. Patterns migrate off of their native fabrics, forming incomplete and overlapping narratives as they recombine, fluidly creating new motifs. In Couple II, the relationship between the two models, their proximity to each other, and their suggestive pose is at first masked by visual chaos, but emerges as the viewer continues to observe, creating a narrative of tipsy lust from what first appears to be complete abstraction. When the figures are discernible, they are often posed in reference to medieval and renaissance painting—iconic images that then disintegrate into chaotic scenes of fragmented bodies and dislocated pieces.